warm & blue & April

Outside it is warm and blue and April.

- Sylvia Plath, from The Journals of Sylvia Plath: 1950-1962

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Amidst the absolute chaos of our collective lives here in this moment, the garden somehow still emerges. We put up the greenhouse and start our seeds. The spring ephemerals push up through the soil. We ground ourselves in observing these cycles. Visit our favorite grove of magnolias in bloom. Collect the cherry blossoms for preserving. Strengthening ourselves for the work, with these rituals.

reading:

a wonderful tutorial on making wild herbal sodas

on being an everyday phenologist

and on a related note, forever intrigued by the Japanese idea of the 72 seasons

Louise Glück’s Primavera

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listening:

to Billie Holiday (4/7), Ella Fitzgerald (4/25) & Charles Mingus (4/22) on their birthdays

and this new album from Ballaké Sissoko & Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch

Hildegard von Bingen’s Hortus Deliciarum

and the latest album from Anouar Brahem, Anja Lechner, Django Bates & Dave Holland, for Gaza

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above from top left:

{ a grocery store impulse purchase that was revealed to be a very unique double flowered mini daffodil }

{ delighted to offer you this gorgeous organic lemon verbena tisane, grown in Vermont, as part of our collection! }

{ pouring so many beautiful beeswax candles to help light your days }

{ blending a stunning new batch of our rose & chamomile white tea, with the sweetest, freshest organic chamomile blossoms grown in Pennsylvania. your support of my work also uplifts a network of small regenerative farmers treating the earth with respect! }

Playing with more hyacinth enfleurage this month, further charging up a batch of pommade that I started last season. Really loving the slow, meditative process. And sending out lots of Tea for Dreamers samples in your orders this month. I especially love this tisane during seasonal transitions, when I’m thinking about what lies ahead.

As ever, updating our vintage selection with lots of gorgeous pieces, including this lovely tea strainer. And sending lots of botanical perfume samples your way. Our jasmine vine bloomed more beautifully than ever this year, so I’ve continued to use every single blossom, either in my chocolate enfleurage or in starting a bit of enfleurage pommade that will undoubtedly continue on into next season.

In the garden, it’s time to keep a close watch on the kanzan cherry tree in order to harvest the blossoms at just the right stage. Too closed and the flavor will be less vibrant, too open, and the blossoms get messy and floppy during the preservation process. A day can make all the difference. And then the lovely ritual begins. Salt brine, ume plum vinegar bath, blossoms laid out to dry and then packed in himalayan pink salt. Little jewels of springtime to last you the rest of the year.

Beyond that, in the garden, the peach tree blooms, the daffodils flourish. Our native columbine and bleeding hearts show off. A recent trip to the native plant garden at NYBG revealed more exquisite pinks on a wild blueberry bush (bottom left, above). I also made a little flipbook video of some of the marvelous spring ephemerals there, you can watch it here.

Until next time,

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more spring things